Bottlecap Necklace
by Anastasia Kaliska Dyani Malfoy
Summary: Why was she hammering a nail into her money? Fem!Lone Wanderer/Charon if you squint. With rose colored glasses. A lot.


**Title:** Bottlecap Necklace**  
Fandom: **Fallout 3**  
Characters: **Charon, FemVaultie  
**Disclaimer:** Yeah I wish.  
**Summary: **Why _was_ she hammering a nail into a bottlecap?

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Charon watched as his new employer took one of the bottlecaps from her huge pile on the table and started to hammer a nail into the top of it.

The noise went throughout the entire shack he dared to call home. That's what she said after all. That this was his home now. He watched her as she hammered, seeing the emotions flying past her face. One minute she looked happy, the next she look pissed. He almost laughed but figured she might take offense to him laughing at her out of the blue.

He idly scratched at the flaking skin on his arm as he continued to watch her. She had finished the first bottlecap she had forced a hole through and watched as she started again on another she randomly plucked from the pile. He wanted to ask her why. Why was she jamming holes through their money? Her money. Why was she keeping the neighbors up with all that hammering? Not that it bothered him any. Where the hell did she get even a nail and hammer?

"From outside the Statesman Hotel. Don't know why it was there but figured it might come in handy." His mistress said, no, Kay. She said to call her Kay. He guessed that was her name.

He didn't know he had spoken out loud. He twitched, the only sign that he heard her, then raised his non-existent eyebrow at her. "If I may ask Mistress Ka-,"

"Just Kay." She interjected with a small smile as the tip of her tongue poked out of her mouth. And viciously jammed a hole through the metal before her. Bloodthirsty little thing she was.

He lowered his head in acknowledgement then continued, "If I may ask Kay, why are you jamming holes through your money?"

She kept on easing a hole through the bottlecap with that nail then produced a dog tag chain from out of thin air, so quickly it kinda shocked him, not that he showed it. She placed one end of the chain through the hole then pulled it through before hooking the ends together. Kay put that one down on the table then looked around her for something. Charon just stood over in the corner and waited for her answer. He knew she would answer him too. For some reason she could never stay quiet around him. Everytime he looked like he wanted to ask a question she would pester him until he said whatever it was on his mind.

It was slowly starting to grow on him. The pestering thing.

She got another dog tag chain - and seriously where was she _getting_ these chains from? – and put it through the other bottlecap she had viciously attacked not even moments before.

"There we go! They look…well they look actually sorta terrible but that's alright! Here!" Kay shouted as she thrust her fist in front of Charon's face. He moved his head back slightly and stared at the dangling chain with a _bottlecap_ attached to the end of it. He continued to stare at it too, not reaching out to take it at all. Kay's face faltered, her grin slowly dropping from her face as she lowered her hand. "Charon? You don't want it?"

He gave her a look, "I don't even know what it is Miss Kay."

She rolled her eyes at the title and shook her closed fist in front of him once more. The chain clinked together with the bottlecap on the end. It sounded sweet to Charon's ears for some reason. "Well obviously it's a necklace silly! What did ya think it was?" She giggled to herself as if she told some great joke.

Charon had to stop his smile from growing on his face. Her laugh was wonderful.

"I thought," he said while reaching up to open her fist. She blinked up at him and let him uncurl her fingers slowly, one by one until most of the chain laid in the palm of her hand. He touched it with his fingers, fingers that were more muscle and bone than skin now, and picked it up, raising it until it dangled in front of Kay's face. She watched it sway back and forth then looked at him. "that this was money. Much needed money might I add. Money we need to buy ammo and food and possibly weapons. Your shotgun is five shots away from breaking completely Miss Kay." He watched her for a second then focused on the bottlecap that was swaying back and forth like some invisible wind was blowing through the house.

She lifted her shoulders in a shrug and waved her hand around her head. "Oh those two bottlecaps won't mean a thing. I have plenty more. Besides…I wanted to make us something."

Charon stared at her for a couple of minutes, that unnerving stare that always got to her, before he placed the necklace back into her hands then lowered his head towards her. She got wide eyed before she realized that he was doing that for a reason and hurriedly put the necklace over his shaggy, flaky, mostly missing hair. It fell to the hollow of his neck and rested there comfortably. He didn't even glance at it before he went over to the table and snatched up the other chain. Moving back in front of Kay, he raised his arms and made a sound in his throat. She slowly smiled at him and moved her hair out of the way, leaning towards him so he could gently put the necklace over her head.

It fell into place right where his was resting.

They stared at each other for a moment before looking down at their necklaces. Kay reached up to touch hers. Charon lightly picked at the chain. They looked up at the same time.

"Why did you make these?" He questioned. He half thought he was going to be punished for it. None of his other 'Employers' allowed him to question them. But Kay wasn't like the others now was she?

"Because…I wanted to make us something. I was always known for my arts and crafts skills back in the Vault." She broke off there and got a far away look in her eye that Charon knew better than to ask about. Some things should remain secret after all. She blinked then smiled brightly at him. "And I thought these would be pretty cool! Now we can never truly be out of money! Pretty ingenious I think." She turned around and went back over to her table, scooping up her numerous bottlecaps and shoving them….back wherever she put them when she collected them. He stood there and watched her silently. He noticed he was still touching the necklace at his neck and dropped his hand as if he'd been burned. Turning around he walked over to the door, maybe he could do patrol or something. Megaton seemed relatively safe but you never know.

Right before his hand reached the doorknob to give it a yank he heard Kay speak up.

"Hey Charon…we're a team right?"

Turning his head he spoke quietly over his shoulder, "We are Kay. A great team. You know I won't leave you, right Kay?"

He could hear her nod. "Yeah Charon. I know."

He hoped to God that she did.

He turned the doorknob and opened the door. "I'm gonna go look for Dogmeat. Be back in 20. Don't go anywhere without getting me first alright Miss Kay?"

"Oh that's fine! And where would I go without you? Certainly not outside these walls! I gotta get back to my room before the robot finds me! Though this isn't a very big place. He probably knows where I am. Oh! Think you could pick up some Sugar Bombs for me? Got such a craving. I know! I think I can make one of these necklaces for Dogmeat! He would love it. Lemme go find some more chains and then-"

Charon shook his head as he shut the door behind him. He could feel the laughter coming up but tried hard to suppress it. Not even before he could take four steps away did he hear a screech, then a crash, then a "Pardon me Madam. You appear to be wounded. May I suggest you seek medical attention as soon as possible?"

With a hand on his necklace he let the laughter out. How could he not?


End file.
